A chain-link gate at Tolomato Cemetery, the oldest planned cemetery in the state, for decades has separated the public from the history within.

That changed Saturday, when trained docents gave the first scheduled public tour in modern history, opening the centuries-old burial grounds to gazers.

"It has never been open on a regular basis," said Elizabeth Gessner, president of the Tolomato Cemetery Preservation Association, which began in 2008.

"It's been open on a very irregular basis but not for about 20 years or so," she said.

Now, docents will offer a tour one Saturday a month, the association reports.

Charles Tingley of the St. Augustine Historical Society said the development is an important one because the cemetery "possibly has the first headstone in the state of Florida ... has a mortuary chapel to a saint ... and many of the graves are interesting examples of mortuary art -- everything from Greek Revival to some of the nicest 19th century cast iron fences in town."

The earliest burials there took place in the 1700s, during the First Spanish Period, when it was home to a village of Christianized Tolomato Indians.

Burials continued there throughout St. Augustine's many periods, from British occupation to second Spanish occupation and Florida's statehood.

The last burials were in 1884, when the city prohibited burials within city limits for health reasons, the association reports.

A complicated history

Among the burials are the bodies of hundreds of Minorcans, the remains of Christianized Native Americans, early city leaders and others.

And each and every one reflects the city's "complicated history ... a cross-section of life in St. Augustine," Gessner said.

She said St. Augustine over the centuries was a very diverse place.

"We have freedmen there, we have the Minorcans, we have people from just about every country in Europe," she said.

"The importance of (the cemetery) is the cross-section and the many, many different people who shaped St. Augustine. That's where they ended up."

Tingley said the cemetery had importance beyond St. Augustine, "for all of Florida, in that it has the burials from the Second Spanish Period; it has the only Second Spanish Period governor.

"It was a dominant feature of the community (where) death was an everyday occurrence in colonial life," he said.

Even though the graveyard usually was closed, visitors from other countries have visited from time to time in a search for figures in their own countries' histories.

The Cubans, for instance, come to pay their respects to the Rev. Felix Varela, whom Tingley described as the Cuban theologian who made that country's independence possible.

"He taught Cubans to think ... as Cubans, not Spanish citizens, so he is extremely important to the history of Cuba," Tingley said. "He created the philosophical basis for Cuban nationalism."

Varela was interred in the floor of a chapel at the rear of the cemetery, though his remains were removed in the early 20th century and repatriated to his home country, Tingley said.

"The Cubans are very devoted to him and sometimes put a Cuban flag on his grave," Gessner said.

She said Haitians also are connected to the cemetery.

Gessner said they visit to pay their respects to Gen. Georges Biassou, a leader in the Haitian uprising against the French who helped secure that country's independence.

The location of his grave isn't known, Gessner said.

Graves, helter-skelter

Though Tolomato is the oldest planned cemetery in the state, it never conformed to plans, Gessner said.

"The graves are helter- skelter; people are probably buried on top of each other and in multiple burials," she said.

The Library of Congress holds an 1811 Spanish plan to lay out the cemetery in an orderly fashion, but the Spanish "really never carried out the plan because they realized they were on borrowed time," Gessner said.

There are at least 1,000 burials in the Parish records and only 105 markers.

The oldest marker belongs to Elizabeth Forrester, who died in 1796, Tingley said.

The first of many?

Gessner hopes the public will visit more often now that tours are available.

She said the association has planned other improvements besides the tours, like painted signs and new benches.

"This is hopefully the first of a regular schedule for opening it," Gessner said of Saturday's tour.